I don't expect any mildew for a couple months yet...it depends where you are located.

Cucurbit powdery mildew is one of the strains for which milk sprays are very effective when used preventatively, but then all of your varieties are supposed to have PM resistance. I don't think I'd do neem oil unless you were seeing huge numbers of cucumber beetles. With insects, you have to get neem on their bodies, so preventive sprays are a waste of time.

See milk and cucurbit powdery mildew especially the comments.

Well it may not be powdery mildew time yet but I am already starting to see signs of Angular Leaf Spot and this is very discouraging because at least three of the four varieties I planted are supposed to be resistant to this disease:

Some more photos....all varieties seem to be affected at least slightly.

I know it doesn't seem like much, but trust me..... last year it went from what you see to a total disaster in a less than a month.

Any suggestions on the spotting? I don't want to cover the leaves with neem oil only to find out that I shouldn't have.

What are all the little black specks on the leaves? Sure they aren't aphids?

If you really believe it is ALS despite growing resistant cultivars and the lack of evidence in the pics and you really want to try to salvage the crop then you are going to have to bring out the big gun rather than relying on Neem. Copper plus Maneb at label rates or at least Daconil.

I'm curious why none of your cukes are mulched since that is one of the primary control recommendations for preventing it by preventing soil splash. Plus are you using overhead watering with no mulch in place?

Dave

I probably have not watered in two weeks with all the rain we've received. And when I do water I NEVER water anything from overhead. I have a hose attachment wand that allows me to water the base of every plant in my garden.

Secondly, I don't mulch because I was told in previous years that mulch (the shredded wood variety), if accidentally mixed into the soil eventually ties up the nitrogen in the soil. Or something along those grounds. Now, regarding what you would consider to be mulch....I still don't have my next batch of compost ready yet and nothing else readily available in my area short of traditional shredded wood mulch. No pine needles, no leaves, nada.

The black specs are just loose soil from some tending to the garden I was probably working on that day.

Lastly....it's not that I really believe it is ALS...it's just that I don't know what it is but it has been suggested in previous years that it might be ALS. It happens every year. I end up with less than a dozen cucumbers for all that hard work and it really gets frustrating after a while.

I've seen the copper fungicide soaps in HD and my local garden centers, but not sure about Maneb. I guess I'll try the Daconil this season and see what happens.

In two weeks those plants are going to be a jungle and you'll look back at this thread and smile. Relax. You've done what you can do, and they are on their own now.

Not wanting to take any chances I decided to bite the bullet and applied Daconil this morning. I was at my local nursery after work yesterday and noticed that all of their leftover stock of cucumbers also have similiar looking leaf damage. Is if the NJ air?

Is it the NJ air? Naw. All of what shows in your pics so far is fairly normal for cukes just about anywhere. All sorts of things can cause holes and little brown spots and damaged or yellowing edges on some leaves and 9 times out of 10 it is no problem. Which is why man don't worry about it. Plus we have learned that trying to "fix" it is usually what does them in, not the original damage.

Dave

Dave, I've used that attitude the last three years and it's gotten me nowhere. I need to figure it out. I used to live three miles away from my current house and for the six years I lived there I had so many healthy cucumbers I couldn't even give them away. Now I'm lucky to harvest a dozen puny ones before they succumb to the usual fate.